Remote jobs return to the office, outsourcing to cheaper workers

• Finding a remote job is getting more and more difficult.
• Openings are dwindling, and companies are outsourcing some remote jobs overseas.
• 10% to 20% of US service support jobs could move abroad over the next decade.

Getting a remote job can become more difficult.

That’s because competition for remote work in the US is still fierce, the number of job vacancies is declining, and some of the remaining remote jobs are being outsourced.

As of March, Approximately 13% of job vacancies in the United States It was far away, according to recruitment firm Manpower Group, down from 17% in March 2024 but up from the pre-pandemic level of 4%. By the end of 2023, Nick Bloom, a Stanford economist and leading researcher on the work-from-home field, previously told Insider the share of remote hires could drop to 10%.

“Employees in the US still want fully remote roles, but those jobs are shrinking,” Bloom said, referring to companies that have called employees into the office at least a few days a week.

Companies are moving remote jobs abroad

Some companies are embracing remote work, but not in the United States. Instead, they outsource jobs overseas and save on labor costs.

Johnny Taylor Jr., CEO of the Virginia-based Society for Human Resource Management, told the Wall Street Journal that he decided to outsource the role to one employee after they inquired about moving to a different state and working remotely. Taylor said he decided to outsource the position to India and saved nearly 40% on labor costs.

In August, 7.3% of American senior managers surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta said telecommuting was This prompted them to transfer more jobs abroadMore companies may follow suit in the future.

That’s because the remote work revolution is still in its infancy, and the pandemic has made it difficult for companies to travel and build global operations remotely. But that could change in the coming years and lead to a “significant increase in offshoring,” Bloom told Insider last year.

“If you’re about to outsource 500 jobs to India, you’d probably want to go and visit there first and check it out, and it’s not that easy,” he said. “I think in 2025 we will be thinking, ‘Oh my God, look what happened. Three million jobs have been moved abroad from the United States. “

Thrives he told the newspaper That roughly 10% to 20% of service support jobs in the US such as software developers, HR professionals and payroll administrators could move abroad over the next decade.

It has already had an impact on the tech industry.

“US tech companies say, ‘We can hire an engineer in the US for $300,000 or we can hire an amazing person internationally with very similar experience for $75,000,’” Chris Buck, CEO of tech recruitment platform Laskie, previously told Insider.

For Americans eager to cut that remote job, it’s not all dreary and dreary. The ability to apply for any remote position is a huge advantage for job seekers, even as hiring drops, Daniel Gao, an economist at Glassdoor, told Insider.

“Before the pandemic, a job seeker living in Bozeman, Montana, was limited to local jobs, but now, that same job seeker has access to remote jobs from all over the country,” he said.

But the aforementioned factors mean that the job search may not be easy, which is among the reasons why some remote workers cling to their jobs whether they like it or not.